FORMER Rivers State governor Rotimi Amaechi has turned on his predecessor Nyesom Wike and accused him of using a N45bn (£147.2m) loan borrowed from banks to pay himself and his cronies.

On Saturday, the election ‎petition tribunal sitting in Abuja nullified Governor Wike's election and ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (Inec) to conduct fresh polls. It upheld a petition challenging the election filed by Dakuku Peterside, the All Progressives Congress (APC) gubernatorial candidate in the last in which he alleged that the polls were marred by fraud, rigging and violence.

Following the judgement, Governor Amaechi returned to Port Harcourt where he held a special thanksgiving service yesterday. During the service, Governor Amaechi turned the tables on Governor Wike who has not only accused him of corruption during his eight year tenure but instituted a judicial panel of inquiry to probe the administration.

Governor Amaechi said: “I borrowed N300bn (£982m) and I paid N245bn (£801m) back and I left about N15bn (£49m) but now, they are not borrowing to pay contractors but rather they are borrowing for themselves. Borrow to pay contractors not for your purse.

"They have borrowed N45bn and nobody is seeing it. If you put N45bn in the state economy, the state will be bouncing and they will employ more workers, pay them and you will see things working.”

In addition, Governor Amaechi lamented the situation of things in the state and maintained that projects embarked upon by his administration were valuable. He added that the roads he built are being driven on and his administration constructed underground gutters in Port Harcourt.

However, Opunabo Inko-Tariah, Governor Wike's spokesman described the allegations by Governor Amaechi as malicious and spurious. He added that Governor Amaechi himself in one of his speeches said Governor Wike would inherit an empty treasury which was fleeced dry by him. 

Mr Inko-Tariah said: “Therefore, if Governor Wike, who inherited an empty treasury could achieve the level of infrastructural development we are witnessing today and can also clear the unjustifiable liabilities he inherited from Amaechi as evidenced in his speech, where then did he get the money from to do all that that have put smiles on the faces of Rivers people who were despondent and frustrated under Amaechi if not with the loans he collected with the imprimatur of the House of Assembly?

 “This obviates the need for any further evidence that the loans collected were judiciously applied and in tandem with the reasons for which they were collected. The allegation has no ounce of truth in it and Rivers people are too intelligent to be deluded by such cheap lies.”

Governor Wike, has said that despite the ruling of the election petitions tribunal, he will complete his four-year tenure as the chief executive of the state. He expressed optimism that he would eventually emerge victorious at the end and would continue to retain his position as the governor of the state.